Welcome to a mindful meditation for a new year.
Whether this is your birthday,
A new calendar year,
Or a new season,
This meditation seeks to offer you an opportunity to be with what is now and a practice of releasing what is no longer needed.
Settling in to start meditation,
Finding a comfortable position your body welcomes at this time.
As you're settling into meditation,
Maybe consciously reviewing how the body settles in.
Maybe this is similar or different to how your body is settled into meditation before.
No need to change it,
Just noticing what is now welcomed in the body.
Maybe taking a few deeper breaths to settle into being.
Allowing the eyes to gently close or unfocusing your gaze.
If you were taking deeper breaths now,
Releasing control of the breath and welcoming the body breathing itself.
Noticing where in the body you feel the breath the most and placing your attention there.
Curiously being with the breath,
Just this breath.
Inviting you to open the attention now from the breath to the body as it's sitting here.
As you open attention to the whole body,
Noticing here if you are drawn to any particular area of the body that's most calling you.
Perhaps an old pain,
A new discomfort,
A sensation that brings your attention.
If you prefer to scan the body,
Maybe the feet to the legs,
Moving to the torso,
Hands and arms,
Up into the neck and head in an order and amount that feels right to you.
As you're present with the body now,
Perhaps taking moments of gratitude for all that the body has done.
All that the body has carried you through.
All the ways in which the body has made it possible for you to be.
Maybe finding the mind and narrative about all that has happened in this body this year.
As you notice the mind traveling to things that have happened,
Events that are coming,
Ways in which this body has carried you.
Spending a moment with these travels and noticing what your mind is attracted to.
And then gently bringing the mind back to the felt sense of the body now.
What is here?
If this feels like somewhere you'd like to stay,
Taking time to be with the body in this way,
Feel free to drop below the words.
If you feel ready,
Focusing now on the breath as it enters the body.
Feeling perhaps the coolness in the nostrils and the throat,
Down into the lungs,
Feeling the belly expand,
Perhaps a brief pause.
And then the contraction of the belly,
The chest,
A warmth in the throat and the nostrils,
Maybe even a sensation on the upper lip.
And then the next breath.
Following this breath in and through the body and then back out again.
Maybe imagining here inhaling the inspiration of this moment,
This new time.
Feeling it enter the cells,
The possibility of this moment and exhaling anything that is no longer useful.
Inhaling as if welcoming in a new stage,
A modified stage or a consistent stage and exhaling those things for which there is no longer room,
No longer need.
And as you're inhaling this inspirational change,
This consistency,
Whatever it is that you need in this moment and exhaling that which is no longer needed,
Recognizing that what you no longer need,
Someone else might.
And in this inhale and exhale,
Bringing about this consciousness that what you bring to you is what you will need and what you release is no longer needed.
Creating perhaps this sense of equanimity,
This ability to cultivate a sense of balance.
And maybe these inhales bring in pictures,
Sense or colors.
There's no wrong way to bring in what is needed.
And on exhale,
Maybe there are pictures,
Feelings,
Sensations you release.
No need to judge the way in which you take in what is needed and release what you no longer need,
Just allowing this process to unfold.
And as this process unfolds for you,
Sensing,
Feeling,
Welcoming,
Whatever sensations come with it,
Perhaps a sense of lightness,
Maybe a connectedness with offering all for which you no longer need,
Maybe a sense of finality,
Maybe being with what shows up here as you inhale to the very cells,
All that now is needed,
And exhale that which is no longer needed.
Resting in the awareness that all that is needed is already here.
The sense of taking in what is needed,
Knowing there's always enough,
And releasing what is no longer needed,
Knowing this supplies and provides for others.
And if you'd like to incorporate body breathing,
Perhaps sensing into the crown of the head and breathing in what is needed from the top of the head all the way down to the soles of the feet,
Every cell,
Every inch welcoming,
And then exhaling what is the overflow,
The extra,
What is no longer useful,
Out through the toes,
All the way up through the top of the head.
And then inhaling again through the top of the head,
Down through the body,
All the way through every system,
Beginning the exhale at the soles of the feet,
Up the legs,
Torso,
Hands,
Arms,
Neck,
And head out through the crown.
And body breathing in this way,
Welcoming the new,
The consistent,
Whatever is needed,
And releasing,
Relinquishing,
Allowing for that which is no longer needed to go.
When you feel you have reached what you need,
Like a camera lens,
Closing the awareness down to the breath as you feel it in the body now.
As you settle into this felt sense of the breath once again,
Maybe noticing any shifts or changes in flows or felt sense in the body.
This rejuvenation,
This shift,
Or perhaps this consistency,
Whatever is present for you,
Knowing that is what is needed.
Spending some time here,
Maybe noticing gratitude for spending your time in this way,
Being with this that is here,
And the release of that which no longer serves.
Taking your last few breaths in meditation here,
And when you feel ready,
Opening your eyes or focusing your gaze,
Maybe before moving the body to have a sense of carrying this into your day,
Knowing all that is needed is already here.
You have cultivated a balance.
Now begin.
